Cadbury Picnic ad banned by ad watchdog for negative portrayal of Indian man

Mondelez has been censured by the Advertising Standards Board for its Cadbury Picnic ‘Obey your Mouth’ TV ad for negatively stereotyping Indian people.

A complaint submitted to the industry watchdog argued the spot “exploits the often used caricature of the ethnic stereotype; the stereotypical Indian accent with the cliche Indian caricature demeanour”.

Mondelez defended the ad, telling the ASB that it “aims to bring to life in a joyful and light-hearted way, the concept of our mouth craving for certain things at certain times, and in a humorous manner, suggests we obey these cravings”.

“The TVC was designed to appeal to our consumers and in no way intended to offend or or insult,” the confectionary company said.

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“Given the humorous and light-heated tone of the advertisement and the fictional/fanciful nature of the animations, it is obvious that this imagery is not reflective of a real life situation and viewers will comprehend it as such.

“According to the last census, approximately 43% of Australians have at least one parent who was born overseas and 30% of the population were born in another country. Collectively, Australians speak over 200 languages,” Mondelez said.

“The TVC is simply reflective of the diversity of Australia’s population and given the humorous tone of the advertisement, does not portray or depict material in a way which discriminates against or vilifies a person or section of the community on account of race or ethnicity.”

While a minority of the ASB board considered the use of an Indian man was a “reflection of the diversity of Australian culture and the scene is an exaggerated and humorous parody of the inaudible announcements frequently heard at airports and railway stations”, the majority of the board considered the depiction of the Indian man was negative and perpetuated a stereotype.

It was the board’s view that the ad did depict material that discriminates against or vilifies a person or section of the community on account of race, thus the complaint was upheld.

Mondelez said it was “disappointed” with the ruling.

“The ad has been off air for a number of weeks now and will not return.”

Oh here we go again! The inner city Lefty elites have decided what can and can’t be said, even though nobody has even given them that authority. They represent no-one but themselves and their petty-minded, humourless, narrow world views. And they insult the Indian actor, by presuming that he is incapable of having an opinion on the subject. Talk about patronising and paternalistic! If it had been offensive, who better to make that assessment but an artist of Indian origin? Enjoy this power trip while you can, Lefty elites, because your midnight is fast approaching in Western societies. Very fast.

It’s okay to ban an ad for being offensive, but if you’re going to say that an ad is bad for perpetuating a stereotype, you should have to say what that stereotype is. I may be dense, but what exactly is the stereotype here? The accent was within the range you’d hear on the street, and I am not sure what the “cliche Indian caricature demeanor” is.

Note to self – ensure all future ads contain not too little, but not too much non-whiteness. It’s like Goldilocks and her porridge. Gotta get that shit jjuuuuusssstt right… or else some hand wringing do-gooder will kick up a stink.

And while they’re at it, why didn’t someone complain about average white males being depicted as too stupid to find a hotel website, say, or other ads that depict men as dumb. This has become a whinging culture – or as Barry Humphries put it, a finger wagging puritanical society. Humour in public is under threat. And that is not funny.

Im half indian. I found the ad to be crap. When my wife and I first saw it – we looked at each other and said ‘great’… here we go again

It just perpetuates the stereotype that Indians cannot speak english properly, have heavy accents, look like idiots (the guy in the ads lips were edited) and generally are idiots. The guy in the ad was clearly not good at his job – spoke incoherently and perpetuates a sense that Indians are the object of humour.

My question is this: where are the Indian actors on normal aussie tv ads? Where is the ethnically diverse representation on mainstream australian tv? If the sole representation of a non-caucasian is as a mindless idiot with a bad accent, how are people not supposed to take offence?

If it was an ad in China and they portrayed an aussie as a drunk unemployed guy in a wife beater in front of a bbq that was uncouth and rowdy, would we take offence and say thats not an accurate portrayal?

Until we have serious representation of a race in a multicultural country like Australia, parody is dangerous for very obvious reasons. [EDITED UNDER MUMBRELLA’S COMMENT MODERATION POLICY]

When I first saw this wonderfully imaginative and rather funny ad, I thought “OH No, this wont last long with the trendy apologists, and the half baked racism police, and the oh so up themselves political correctness clans.

“Javagoodweekend” “Dzastrous!” even G’day mate, and the Tetley T bags ads in broad Yorkshire dialect. all depict accent use and racial or ethnic background.

How dare these fools interfere with a world wide joy that has been used to great advantage for centuries, the comical differences between the various ways we pronounce and enunciate in our own way, despite the language.

Accents and various pronunciations are funny, sometimes very funny, and if we can’t laugh at each other, then we had better get rid of the NZ accent jokes like “our cows are Fetta” and all the Pom accent jokes and etc etc……….STOP THE NONSENSE AND GROW UP YOU IDIOTS.

What a load of PC bollocks. James, your claims that this advertisement offends you indicates you are a typical member of the new effete hand wringing brigade who actively look for find evidence of insult towards them everywhere they go.

It was probably you who lodged the complaint in the first place.

If it were a white male in the ad you’d be saying “where’s the representation of our cultural diversity these days?

Whichever colour of the actor it was meant to be a piss take and not of sufficient seriousness to be taken as a slight to your ancestry.

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